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Kim Kardashian has called out the Trump administration over its “inhumane” immigration raids in Los Angeles, which have generated national outcry and spurred days of protests in the city.
“When we’re told that ICE exists to keep our country safe and remove violent criminals — great,” Kardashian wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram story on Tuesday. “But when we witness innocent, hardworking people being ripped from their families in inhumane ways, we have to speak up. We have to do what’s right.”
No matter where you fall politically, it’s clear that our communities thrive because of the contributions of immigrants.
kim kardashian
Kardashian, a lifelong resident of Los Angeles County, said she has seen firsthand “how deeply immigrants are woven into the fabric of this city.”
“They are our neighbors, friends, classmates, co-workers and family,” she continued.
The reality star told her more than 356 million followers on the platform that this isn’t a partisan issue: “No matter where you fall politically, it’s clear that our communities thrive because of the contributions of immigrants. We can’t turn a blind eye when fear and injustice keep people from living their lives freely and safely.”
“There HAS to be a BETTER way,” she wrote.
Kardashian, 44, also shared a video of Doechii denouncing the raids during Monday’s BET Awards. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,” the rapper said.
Kardashian’s public condemnation of the administration may come as a surprise to some, considering her prior work with Donald Trump on criminal justice reform.
During the president's first term, Kardashian lobbied him to commute the sentence of Alice Johnson, a grandmother who was serving life without the possibility of parole for a nonviolent drug offense. In 2018, Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence and, in 2020, granted her a full pardon. Johnson currently serves as Trump’s “pardon czar.”
After Johnson’s release, Kardashian continued to work with the administration, lobbying for the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that Trump signed into law in 2018. In 2020, she attended a meeting at the White House with several women whose prison sentences Trump had commuted. At the time, Kardashian said she was there to “discuss more change that our justice system desperately needs!”
In 2019, Kardashian told Vogue magazine that her work on prison reform inspired her decision to pursue a legal education. She announced in May that she had completed her law degree after six years of study.